Amazon Buys .Book Domain Amid Controversy With Publishers

In the culmination of a two-year battle against publishing companies, Amazon has been granted .book domain name rights. The online retailer-turned-Internet service giant beat eight other competitors in the application process, including Google and publisher Bowker, to win the auction by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN).

Though in a surprising result, despite being the world's largest cloud computing provider, Amazon, under Amazon Web Services, lost the .cloud domain name to a relatively unknown Italian cloud vendor Aruba. However, it seems to still have a bid in for .author, which would even further Amazon's online dominance.

While traditional publishing houses may decry Amazon's monopolies in the online book world, the retailer is far from being dominant in publishing — particularly lately. It will be interesting to see how the new domain name rights will play alongside Amazon's controversial place in the current industry. This month, esteemed editor Ed Park left Amazon to join Penguin Press amid whispers of the company's difficulty in establishing a literary platform.